SACRAMENTO, Calif. – St. Francis has earned a No. 3 seed and will host No. 14-seeded Golden Valley in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II girls' water polo championship tournament, the section office announced Friday. The tourney opener will take place at American River College on Tuesday, November 5. Game time is 5 p.m.

The Troubadours finished the regular season with a 16-9 overall mark and a 7-5 record in the Sierra Foothill League, good for third place behind co-champions Davis and Granite Bay (11-1) while ahead of Rocklin (5-7) and Del Oro (4-8). The Thunder and Golden Eagles hold No. 5 and 6 seeds in the D-II bracket, with Merced, Rio Americano, St. Francis and El Capitan claiming the top four, respectively. SF arguably made its greatest statement for a No. 3 seed at the 46th Western States tournament: wins against Downey, Sierra and El Capitan, until falling to Merced in the Gold bracket championship.

Offensively, the senior duo of Abigail Benavidez (56 goals, 15 assists) and Miranda Ferguson (55 goals, 15 assists) lead St. Francis, with senior Piper Brostrom (29 goals, 14 assists) also averaging better than a goal per game. Benavidez also paces the Troubies with 52 steals, but the centerpiece of the defense is senior Sophia Santsche-Chavez, who has 282 saves against 171 goals for a .623 average.

Golden Valley finished 12-13 for the year with a 1-8 mark in the Central California Conference, albeit against a tough schedule: Merced and El Cap tied for the league title with matching 9-1 records.

Tickets for all SJS postseason events are available exclusively through GoFan (https://gofan.co/app/school/CIFSJS), with direct links going live 1-2 days before the event. A full bracket can be found on the SJS website at https://www.cifsjs.org/girls-water-polo-d2-bracket.